Thursday, August 15, 2013

Deceit & Judgment (part 2 of 2)

With this somewhat clear presentation of idolatry as the
reason for judgment to fall upon Israel, one can then go on to make sense of
reading about children that “are always thinking about their altars and their
sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, set up beside green tress on the
high hills and on the mountains and in the fields” (Jeremiah 17:2-3a). Following that, the God of Israel says, “I
will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder” (17:3b). So
here an explicit connection is made between idolatry and the material wealth of
the people. Before that point is reached here in chapter seventeen however,
the reader will have stumbled across some words that should help to properly
shape the conception of the true problem of idolatry that was being presented
here by the people of Judah.

In the sixteenth chapter, when the
Creator God gives Jeremiah an answer to give to the people that might find
themselves questioning the reason for the judgment and disaster that was going
to befall them, He says to tell them, “It is because your ancestors rejected Me
and paid allegiance to other gods. They have served them and worshiped
them. But they have rejected Me and not obeyed My law” (16:11).
That sounds pretty bad, but it does not end there. The covenant God
continues His answer with “And you have acted even more wickedly than your
ancestors! Each one of you have followed the stubborn inclinations of
your own wicked heart and not obeyed Me” (16:12).

What is to be found in that statement? Effectively, it
is self-idolatry---the same old sin from the time of the garden---which always
seems to get a far harsher reaction and treatment from the Creator God than the
simple worshiping of wood and stone. It is with this conception of
self-idolatry that one can then move back to the Creator God’s statements about
the human mind and its deceit and incurable “badness.” Following that
statement then, one finds “I, the Lord, probe into people’s minds. I
examine people’s hearts. I deal with each person according to how he has
behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done”
(17:10).

What does this have to do with
idolatry or self-idolatry? Well, connecting the thoughts concerning idolatry
and wealth and treasures found just a few verses before, the reader goes on to learn
in the next verse about “The person who gathers wealth by unjust means”
(17:11a). This is what follows talk of the human mind being more
deceitful than anything else and incurably bad. It could be said that the
person who gathers wealth by unjust means is guilty of self-idolatry,
especially in light of the statement in Deuteronomy that the Lord “is the One
Who gives ability to get wealth” (8:18b).

Surely, it can be said that a Creator God-granted ability to
get wealth will see wealth accumulated by just means, and will therefore result
in proper worship of the God that gave the ability, and Who therefore gave the
wealth. Wealth gained by unjust means will result in worship of what
provided for the accumulation of wealth, which is the marred and
falling-short-of-the-divine-image heart and mind that is said to have come
about because of the desire on the part of the first humans to be like their God.
Because of this, it can be surmised that not only was idolatry, along with its
companion of self-idolatry, the reason for the judgment that came upon the
people of the covenant God, but one can also now understand that the gathering
of wealth by unjust means, which will generally be connected with idolatry and
with the extension of suffering and oppression, was a reason for that God’s
judgment as well.